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ILLINOIS STATE LIBRARY

Illinois History—Digital Imaging Grant Program

Purpose

The Illinois History–Digital Imaging grant program provides funding for eligible libraries to carry out projects involving the selection, digital capture, storage, and provision of web access to their important historical and cultural collections. Digital Imaging grants support the creation of digital collections while at the same time expanding access to those collections via the Illinois Digital Archives.

The priority of the program is digitization of original source materials relevant to Illinois' history and culture.

Grant projects will involve the production of both digital images and associated metadata in accordance with prescribed standards, and, depending on the format, could also involve the production of audio descriptions and/or transcriptions to enhance accessibility and comply with state and federal law.

The Secretary of State/Illinois State Library funds Illinois History—Digital Imaging grants resulting in the following outcomes:

Range of Awards and Funding Source

Projects funded using Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds, CFDA 45.310, provided to the Illinois State Library by the Institute of Museum and Library Services; and/or state grant funds provided to the Office of the Secretary of State/Illinois State Library.

Application Forms and Instructions

Application now closed. The grant application deadline was October 1, 2014.

The first priority for funding will be original source materials, examples of which include:

Material that is not published or duplicated in other representations, including but not limited to diaries, letters, manuscripts, photographs, photographic negatives, prints or movie film, electronic media, musical scores, drawings, maps, and not reproductions of original documents unless the originals no longer exist.

Genealogical source materials of various types (excluding lineage charts) may be eligible for grant funding if they have historical value for researchers other than those from the immediate family.

Newspapers and high school/college yearbooks are not eligible formats under this grant offering.

Information about CARLI's (Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois) Yearbook Digitization Project is available online. Supported by funds allocated by the CARLI Board of Directors, this project allows for CARLI Governing members to choose to have either yearbooks OR student newspapers digitized.

If funding is available, materials that are not original source will be considered for inclusion.

The intent of this offering is to digitize, not create, original source materials. For example, the creation of recorded oral histories would not be appropriate under this offering.

Content created must be available freely to all via the web, without restriction or fee. A rights statement can be included, for example: The images in the XYZ collections may be viewed, downloaded, and printed for personal or educational use, but commercial use is prohibited without permission. Questions may be directed to the library at mylibrary@email.org or (phone).

Allowable/Unallowable Costs

The following expenditures for grant funding under this offering will be allowable:

Contracting for services with a vendor or other institution to outsource the scanning, indexing or the creation of metadata, transcripts or audio descriptions.

Outsourcing the work is preferred, especially if the library has a discrete collection to be digitized.

Purchases of equipment/supplies/software are allowable if the applicant demonstrates the administrative capacity and expertise to digitize in-house; and if the applicant can demonstrate the capacity to continue the use of these items beyond the end of the grant, including identifying staff dedicated to the task of regularly adding content to the Illinois Digital Archives.

Subscriptions, warranties, maintenance contracts or licensing fees that fall outside the timeframe of the grant project.

Requirement(s) for Training

All funded projects must send at least one representative to a one-day, in-person workshop at the Illinois State Library, Room 403/404, Springfield, December 9, 2014.

Projects that are producing digital images/metadata in-house must send at least one representative to an additional two-day, in-person training session at the Illinois State Library, Springfield, January 2015, date to be announced.

Review Process

The Illinois History–Digital Imaging grant program is competitive. Only complete applications from eligible library agencies will be considered for funding. Each application must stand on its own merit and is evaluated based on the information provided in the application and supplement PDF (Portable Document Format) forms.

Grants are awarded by the Secretary of State based on recommendations received from an LSTA Grant Review Committee following its review process. A grant review rubric will be used by the committee to evaluate all applications.

In addition to evaluation of the application content, meeting the criteria for library agencies eligible to apply, and the recommendations of the Review Committee, factors taken into consideration include:

Availability of grant funds.

The applicant's past grant performance.

Geographic distribution of the proposed grant awards.

Only the awarded grant applications shall be considered public information. Working papers, individual reviewer’s comments, notes, and scores are not public information. A summary of the review comments will be shared with the applicant.

Reporting Requirements for Awarded Projects

Grant recipients are expected to submit quarterly narrative, financial and final reports. A quarterly financial and narrative reports schedule is available via the following link to the Digital Imaging Grant Reporting Forms.